As a Member of the Student Team 3.1 of InsideIIM.com, a Core Member of the External Relations Committee and Persona (HR & OB Club) of IIM Trichy, I would say that PORs are a great distinguishing factor when it comes to Placements. Here;s why:

Recruiters need something to distinguish one candidate from another and as a member of a student body, you are showing them that you have done something extra compared to your peers who do not belong to any student body but chose to take life a little easier.

You as a prospective recruit have something interesting to speak of your recent past and there’s this thing about student bodies- they can be spoken of flexibly. You can literally model what you have done for a club or committee to fit most marketing, strategy, HR and maybe even Operations roles. Because, in the recruiters’ eyes, you are yet another bright student sitting for Placements and you are incredibly replaceable by the next person who sits for the interview.

This holds very true for someone who is a fresher, or someone who is trying to make their average looking CV more distinguishable. This means free riding will not help very much here, your experience is the selling point. But, this is also not to say that people who could not get into clubs or committees have no chance at getting distinguished- there are live projects, certifications, competitions that will come knocking, and it is up to you to make a jump.

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I am a Member of the Student Team 3.1 of InsideIIM.com, a Core Member of the External Relations Committee and Persona (HR & OB Club) of IIM Trichy

I don’t think it is necessary to have a POR in your resume. Student committee selections and other processes in an institute may not always be fool proof. There is too much room for nepotism and favouritism in b-school processes. If you are not so popular in college, you may not be able to get into “important” committees.

Thankfully, recruiters are aware of this fact. For summer internships, if you have a POR from a committee in college and you write in your CV that you managed some event held at the college, the recruiter knows this was done just so that students from a committee get the upper hand. It is not a true test of your abilities and the recruiter knows it.

I am not a member of any committee on campus but I was able to capitalise on important things that the recruiter was looking for.

I also know of people who have hefty POR’s and yet struggle during the internship/placement processes.

It basically boils down to the interaction that you have with the recruiter. They say a recruiter knows whether to hire a person or not as soon as he/she opens their mouth.

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Because i had just one POR during the internship process and that too was not talked about in the interview process.